During the Covid-19 pandemic, most knowledge workers experienced an abrupt shift to work-from-home and the growth of virtual work companies skyrocketed. At the same time, air passenger traffic reached its lowest levels of the millennium. Business travel came to a near standstill.
In 2021, mobility restrictions are being loosened and travel is slowly returning. However, the shift to virtual work will prevail even when the pandemic eventually recedes. The big question remains, what parts of business travel will return and which will remain virtual? Virtual work startups such as Hopin, Gather.town, and mmhmm are already disrupting business activities such as travel for corporate events, networking, and client meetings.
To better judge the long-term impact of the virtual work revolution on workplace dynamics and corporate travel activity as a result, this report, based on data from Dealroom, analyzes the ecosystem of over 250 relevant startups that offer virtual solutions bridging physical and virtual business interactions.
By providing virtual alternatives to standard business activities, these startups undermine the need for people to meet in person and thereby reduce the need for business travel.
Our goal with this report is to provide an overview of the startup dynamics in the Virtual Work market by analyzing Venture Capital investment trends into these players. We also provide a framework for travel companies to evaluate the impact of different virtual work categories on their business activities.
